Campaign news archive - January 2014

PRESS RELEASE
John McDonnell MP
‘DAMNING JUSTICE COMMITTEE REPORT RAISES SERIOUS CONCERNS OVER PROBATION PLANS’
On Monday the Government announced that plans to privatise the National Probation Service are to be delayed by two months due to difficulties in implementation. Today (Wednesday) MPs on the Justice Committee have released a damning report raising serious concerns over the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s whole approach.

Justice Select Committee Member. John McDonnell MP said: “The report exposes what the professionals in the field have been advising Ministers that the Government’s proposals are a risky gamble. Grayling completely screwed up the Work Programme when he was in the Department of Work and Pensions and now the evidence points to him risking the same disaster in privatising probation. The fear is that this time public safety will be put at risk.”
-ENDS- [continue...]

Break with this Tory rhetoric!
Recent weeks have seen a poisoning of the political discourse about immigration. Much of the ludicrous fear mongering about an imminent invasion of Romanians and Bulgarians was whipped up by Tory tabloid newspapers. Their agenda is transparent: maximum publicity and support for UKIP ahead of the European Parliamentary elections this spring, primarily as a means of pushing Cameron to the right. Then, no doubt, they will suddenly discover that the UKIP website mocked the death of Nelson Mandela and that its leader Nigel Farage allegedly sang Hitler Youth songs at school. The same tabloids will then quietly fall in behind the Tories before the 2015 general election. [continue...]

Fast Food Forward: support US and British fast food workers
There has been an enormous movement of fast food workers in the USA for a living wage of $15 per hour. 2.3 million workers exist on as little as $7.25 per hour. In December 2013 fast food workers from 130 cities struck for a day in support of their cause. Below is a statement from their campaign, Fast Food Forward. Show your support for British fast food workers in their battle against low pay in the Day of Action on Saturday 15h February. [continue...]